1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Mahogany Toe Rail

OK…break time is over. Two weeks in Japan for a funeral followed by a week-long jet-lag hangover is all I can take…time to get back to work/play in the boatyard. 🙂

With the final Awl Grip 545 prime coat applied to the cabin top in mid-May 2013, the next order of business was to finish installing the mahogany toe rail that was rough cut back in early May. The toe rail has to be installed first because the approach we’re using is very different than what Chris Craft did originally. The biggest difference is that the boards are epoxied to the deck before we screw them down, as opposed to using bedding compound to seal the joint. The boards are also 1-3/4″ thick, as opposed to the original 1-1/2″.

The additional 1/4″ of thickness is hidden behind another big difference from Chris Craft and many other classic boat manufacturers’ approach to wooden toe rails: there is epoxy fairing compound and fillets covering the aluminum-to-wood joint. The fillets end 3/8″ or so above the joint, so there’s is virtually no opportunity for water to wick in between the wood and the aluminum deck joint below.

Gluin’ & Screwin’

First, we positioned the boards and clamped them in place. Then we drilled the screw holes and counterbores.  The screw holes went through aluminum deck. We then removed the boards and tapped all 196 holes for 1/4-20 screws. The next step was to mix up the epoxy and coat the bottom surface of all the boards. We had to coat the boards twice because the first coat really soaked into the mahogany. With the bottom side wetted out, we mixed the remaining epoxy with wood flour and coated the scarf joints, then troweled more epoxy and wood flour on the contact area of the deck.

Clamps hold the scarf joints together.

Machine screws threaded into the deck are the same way Chris Craft attached the original toe rails. But where the original screws were chromed bronze, we went through two boxes of 316 stainless screws to reduce the possibility of copper in the bronze interacting with the aluminum and causing corrosion. On the principle of “better living through chemistry,” we also coated each screw with Tef-gel before threading them into the deck. Tef-gel is said to be very good at eliminating corrosion caused by dissimilar metals.

Bungs give the rail a classic look

Initially, we considered doing the rail the same way they do at Weaver Boatworks, where they rely entirely on epoxy to bond the teak cap rails to their multimillion dollar sportfishermen. But the Weaver approach involves drilling hundreds of holes in the deck for clamps to secure the rail until the epoxy cures, after which the holes in the plywood deck are bunged and fiberglassed over. Since the Roamer is an aluminum hull with aluminum decks, I rejected the idea of drilling lots of holes.

We also considered using the original screw holes and screwing the toe rail down from the underside. But I’ve owned enough cars and boats to have condemned many an engineer who designs things without maintenance in mind. Inaccessible screws behind the cabinetry would not be maintenance-friendly, should any of the toe rail have to be replaced. So screws from below were a no-go.

While bungs present a hole in the top surface, though which water might migrate, that’s a concern only if we don’t keep up on the maintenance. Plus, I like the look of bungs…they add to the classic beauty, I think.

A shocking discovery the following morning!

I arrived last Saturday at 7am to find that the Boatamalans were already hard at work. They’d coated the entire toe rail with black spray paint…the same way they did when they were longboarding the cabin top. The downside of the spray paint is that it so completely covered the wood that you couldn’t see any of that beautiful grain. The upside came later in the day, when all the sanding was done.

Longboarding removed all the black paint… it’s ready for fillets

We first sanded the mahogany with 60 grit, then 120 and finally 240. The black paint guide coat really helped see low and high spots. We used that wonderful Mirka Abranet sandpaper–it’s expensive, but pays for itself in no time because it cuts like razors and lasts a good, long time.

Got wood???

Toe rail fillets and second story scaffolding

While the fairing crew was sanding away and then taping and applying the fillets in Awl Fair, I was building the scaffolding. We’ll need the second level scaffolding for painting the clear coat on the toe rail and for the AwlCraft 2000 Matterhorn white everywhere else.

Good lookin’ fillets!

The fillets here will serve the same purpose as they will at the helm station dash pod and along the cabin top-to-deck joint: they shed water and dirt far better than seams. They’re also much more aesthetically pleasing and should reduce maintenance.

On the inside fillets, we mixed up some homemade fairing compound with West System, cabosil and 3M , microballoons.

We ran out of Awl Fair, the red fairing compound, right on schedule. We’re fast approaching the end of the bodywork phase, so we’re trying to use up all of the canned materials that are open and have a shelf life.

At the end of the weekend, I cut the vent holes.

We won’t want to cut any holes like this after spraying on the shiny Imron MS1 clear coat.

Drill up from the bottom, then cut from the top.

Ready for Imron MS1!

Actually, the next step will be to sand the fillets around the toe rail, remove the tape, then retape over the fillet and spray the MS1 clear coat. Once we’ve got ten nice coats of MS1, we’ll tape off the clear coat, cover it with cardboard for protection, and then spray primer on the fillets.

If we can hold to the current schedule, we’ll be painting the topsides starting in two weeks!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: “Shiny” on the Toe Rail.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets & Final Touches on the Aft Deck Enclosure

We are getting very close to painting the Roamer. Once we start painting “the shiny,” as my chief Boatamalan calls it, the paint work and exterior wood will be finished in seven days. Finally…it’s been a long time coming.

But before that happens, we still need to wrap up some things around the aft enclosure. We really like the fillet approach we’re using on all of the hard inside corners elsewhere on the boat, so we’ll use that same approach aft. We have to longboard the Awlquik we applied the previous weekend and finish fairing the aft deck above the transom. There are also a couple of screw holes and cracks we found on the underside of the original hardtop. But that’s pretty much it.

Wow.

I can’t believe how short the honey-do list has become. 🙂

Fillets and touch ups after longboarding the Awlquik,

The aft enclosure panels, being 3/16 5052 aluminum plate, were already pretty flat. Three good coats of Awlquik on top of the Max Cor aluminum primer gave us plenty of material to longboard without breaking through.

The stubby deck aft of the enclosure is a particularly challenging piece because a lot of welding happened here when Chris Craft built the boat in 1969. A lot of welding means a lot of heat, and even ALCOA’s finest plate tends to warp when it gets really hot. The result is a lot of fairing compound — up to 3/8″ in spots, but with aluminum high spots only a foot away! This deck will be mostly non-skid, so we’re not spending too much time on the middle, but the Boatamalans take great pride in their work and they’re making sure the shiny rim around the outside and at the fillets will be faired true.

In all honesty, though, even in the spots where they don’t put much effort in, these guys make the panels truer than most of the boats you see at any marina. They’re used to doing things to Weaver Boatworks’ high standards, so even their sloppiest work tends to be very, very good. There have been a few times when I’ve suggested to my chief Boatamalan that maybe, you know, a particular area doesn’t have to be that good. It is, after all, a metal boat. Sometimes he agrees, but most of the time he responds with a friendly lecture about quality and I see his point–when you’re taking the time to do it just so, why cheap out on the last five percent?

Seam? What seam?

I have to say…I didn’t think the Boatamalans were going to be able to do much to cover the hard seam line on the aft enclosure back panel without using a huge amount of putty. But, as when we faired the cabin top, you put lots of fairing compound on, then sand most of it off and repeat. By the time you’re done with the six-foot, two-man longboard and sand until you just hit the first high spot, you’ve got a very true surface with the least amount of compound required. The seam has vanished!

FRP covers the aft threshold seams.

Good lookin’ fillets!

The secret to nice fillets is…cake-making tools. Yup. The same spatulas of varying widths with the rounded leading edge that cake makers use to artistically apply frosting works very well for fillets in fairing compound, too.

Fillets at the helm door

Almost ready for a sliding door track.

FRP crack repair

There were long “gelcoat cracks” in both corners of the hardtop. When we ground into them, we found the cracks extended into the FRP matrix. So, as with the cracks we found in the cabin top, we ground them down and did a right proper repair. If we’re taking all this time to prep for paint, it just makes no sense to not put in the slight additional effort.

Ditto on the port side.

We repaired an odd crack near the leading edge of the hardtop, too.

The top-side of the hardtop is already painted with the shiny and non-skid. We use two layers of 20-foot wide Sharkskin to cover the paint and protect it from overspray from below.

Finally done longboarding the bullet-proof cabin top.

And finally done with the bow seat, too.

The hatches under the bow seat are flat…but the panel is curved.

These hatches will allow us to take advantage of the compartments I built into the bow seat. Access isn’t the greatest, but they’ll be fine for line storage.

The hatch is the mold for the fairing compound.

First, I applied a layer of shrink wrap tape all the way around the hatch frame so the fairing compound doesn’t stick to it. Next, I applied fairing compound to the FRP panel around the hatch opening. Then I installed the hatch so the middle of it fit tightly to the bow seat panel, with fairing compound filling the gaps at the ends. I put fillets on the compound and let it cure. All I have to do now is pop the hatches out and fill pin holes. This is more or less the same approach we used when making the corners of the helm door openings.

And that’s a wrap 🙂

I’m beat.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Priming with Awl Grip 545!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cabin-top, dashboard & Hardtop Details

Since October 2012, shortly after we resolved the paperwork SNAFU and resumed the project, we’ve been pushing hard every weekend trying to get the Roamer ready for paint. Our target has been to have her painted by the end of May 2013, and we’re close to meeting that deadline.

Making the cabin-top bulletproof was a huge step toward the goal, not only of getting her painted but also making this Roamer better than anything that came out of Chris Craft’s production lines. There was a slight set back when we found the previous repair under the windshield while working on the dashboard area, but it was better to find it then and fix it than to have cracks reappear months or years after she was painted. The helm station door openings to the deck were also challenging, but I was very pleased to see the woodworker and fiberglass crew turn my concept into reality. Fillets on all of the hard inside corners were the last big job in preparation for primer. All that remained was some detail work, and she’s ready for spraying!

The dashboard fillets and original gelcoat are nicely sanded and ready for primer.

With FRP tape covering the seam between these two components and a nice fillet over that, I think this both looks and will function better than the original dirt-collecting seam.

Final FRP at the top of the door openings.

We had to close the gaps between the original fiberglass hardtop and the new sliding door openings. After grinding down the surfaces to be joined, we wetted out 1708 bi-axial cloth with US Composites 635 epoxy, then used clamps to hold some precisely cut scraps of phenolic-faced plywood wrapped in shrink wrap tape and push the fiberglass into exactly the shape we wanted.

A few hours later, the fiberglass was ready to be trimmed and sanded smooth.

No fairing compound is needed when you use this approach. Epoxy doesn’t stick well to the phenolic-faced plywood and shrink wrap tape, so they just pop right off and you’re pretty much ready to go.

Upright-to-hardtop joint is faired

Fillets & rounded corners really help to integrate the new helm door opening to the original Chris Craft lines.

The window drain and channel turned out very nice.

More fillets and rounded corners at the helm doors.

I think the door openings look like something that might have been original to the boat, but then that’s just my opinion. Please comment! I’d rather hear that something looks goofy now than when it’s all in primer! 😉

Fillets and rounds at the base of the helm door opening

Nice transition from the upright bits to the deck, and should be a vast improvement on the original Chris Craft approach that used 1″ quarter-round painted mahogany screwed in place over the seam, with bedding compound to keep the water out.

Fillet material transitions from Awl Fair to epoxy + 3M microballoons + cabosil

Slider door track and pocket

Ready for primer!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Priming the cabin top!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Hardtop

The hardtop on our Roamer 46 was in surprisingly good shape. Unlike the gelcoat on the cabin top, the gelcoat up above wasn’t cracked or otherwise degraded. I’m a bit stumped as to why it was in such good shape. The only thing that occurs to me is that the cabin top probably got buffed and waxed, unlike the “out of sight, out of mind” hardtop, and aggressive buffing may have broken up the surface of the gelcoat, leading to its ultimate demise. In any case, all we had to do on the hardtop was repair a bunch of holes previous owners had put in it for dinghy mounts, a crane for the dinghy, and a few different kinds of antennas, integrate the spotlight mount into the FRP layup, and then sand the whole thing with a DA. Then it was ready for a coat of Awl Quik over the repair areas, a final sanding in 180 grit before applying the Awl Grip 545 prime coat.

In early 2008, the crane was still on the hardtop.

I can understand the necessity of storing a dinghy on the hardtop in certain circumstances, but that crane was a horrible blight on the aesthetics of the Roamer. I still have it if anybody wants it, because it’s absolutely not going back on the boat.

Fast forward to April 2013…the hardtop is primed.

We closed up all of the holes by first grinding down the repair areas, then filling the ground out bits with a layer of fiberglass topped with the US Composites 635 epoxy + cabosil + 3m microballoon fairing compound we used to fair the cabin top. Once that was longboarded flat, we applied Awl Quik, sanded that and sprayed the Awl Grip 545 you see here. The fairing crew and painter did the work so quickly (while I was preoccupied transforming the tent into a paint shed) that I didn’t take any pix of the process.

All evidence of crane bolt holes and antenna mast base fasteners are gone.

This area of the hardtop was absolutely riddled with holes from hardware I removed, including at least six different antenna mast bases, of which only one still had an antenna attached to it when we got the boat in 2007.

When the painter sprays, we put filters over the the inlet of the box fans attached to the tent. They’re very effective at catching spray particles, though the chemical smell does go right through.

Integrating the searchlight base into the hardtop FRP.

One of the maintenance headaches on classic Chris Craft cruisers with searchlights is the mahogany searchlight base on the hardtop. Originally, the mahogany is finished bright and bedded in Dolphinite or some other kind of goo that eventually gives up and leaks. If you don’t maintain the varnish, the wood degrades and eventually you have a mess on your hands.

On this Roamer, the mahogany base hadn’t been maintained in 20 years. The wood was still solid (i.e. not rotted), but it was cracked down the middle. So we removed it, sanded it clean, epoxied the two halves together and bonded them with US Composites 635 epoxy and cabosil to the original position on the hardtop. We topped the mahogany with two layers of 9oz boat cloth fiberglass, then put a nice fillet all the way around. As with the fillets around the cabin top-to-deck joint and at the dashboard, this approach will shed water and lessen the amount of dirt that collected before in the seams between the two parts.

Awl Quik on the cabin top.

There was some Awl Quik left over from the hardtop, and this stuff (like all Awl Grip products) is expensive! So, rather than tossing it out, I rolled it onto the cabin top in the area where the salon roof hatch was rebuilt as part of the Cummins 450 repower (or more accurately, repowers, since the hatch had originally been cut out in 1973 and was again removed in 2008). We did a lot of work making the cabin top bulletproof, and when longboarding (with 6′ long, two-man longboards!) we discovered highs and lows all over, albeit the height difference between the peaks and valleys is very small fractions of an inch (2 mm or less). Still, that sort of variation would show up as waves in the shiny paint, and we’d like to minimize that if we can.

Most of this first, rolled-on coat of Awl Quik will get sanded away before the final coats of Awl Quik and 545 get applied, but it works well to fill the low spots and pinholes in the fairing compound.

The view from the bow deck in mid-April, 2013…ready for primer!

The view down the side.

The second story scaffolding outboard of the aft deck enclosure will allow us to prime and paint those areas easily. The plywood scaffolding deck overlaps the Roamer’s deck where the mahogany toe rail will go, and I’ve put screws into it through the bolt holes for the toe rail. This effectively ties the upper scaffolding to the boat and makes it very stable.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cabin-top, dashboard & Hardtop Details

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transforming Tent Model IX, Helm Door & Fillets

Tent Model IX served its winter-time purpose extremely well, holding up without a hitch when Hurricane Sandy came calling and providing lots of space to get work done on the interior. Model IX was the culmination of years of shrink wrap tent-making failures and successes. With winter finally past us (maybe! It is, after all, only April!), it ‘s time to transform Model X into a paint shed.

I began by adding scaffolding aft and working my way around to the other side.

Since we’re not doing any heavy longboarding on the hull this time around, the scaffolding deck is down around where the water line will be. This should give the painter sufficient access to apply nice, wet coats of Awl Craft 2000.

Time to build the second story scaffolding.

The second-story scaffolding is just below deck level.

This scaffolding will allow the painter to step off the deck and paint the exterior of the aft deck enclosure, then step back onto the boat at the transom. A couple of cross braces make a huge difference in stability. The tent plastic itself will greatly add to stability, too, once it’s shrunk.

Reusing concrete forms for the scaffolding deck.

Back in 2008, when we first got the Roamer, I got a good deal on phenolic-faced 4×8 sheets used in concrete forms that are made with waterproof, boil-proof glue. I planned to use it as sub-flooring throughout the boat. But after buying it I found that the phenolic isn’t smooth and doesn’t stay attached very long–it cracked and peeled after a year or two just sitting inside the boat while I was straightening out the paperwork SNAFU. So I ripped it into 24′ x 96″ pieces and used it for the scaffolding deck.

The scaffolding decking is supported lengthwise with two 2x4s per section and more lumber at the ends. You can dance on it! I used screws so it will be easier to sectionally dismantle. If anybody needs a portable paint shed at a bargain price in a couple of months, let me know!

Scaffolding around the bow

There’s a step up in the right side of the pic that allows the painter to reach all the way to the rub rail at the top of the stem.

The long view down the starboard side looking back.

The step up at the bow.

Reused the old bow seat for scaffolding.

The white section of the scaffolding deck is the old bow seat that I cut off and replaced with something better. It follows the curve of the hull pretty good!

From the bow seat to the stern, the decking is all phenolic-faced plywood.

Putting up the paint shed skirt.

I’ll put a new sheet of shrink wrap over the top, but I need a skirt from the ground to about 12″ up because shrink wrap doesn’t come in 60′ wide rolls… and it would be extremely heavy if it did!

I cut this clear shrink wrap plastic off of our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42 last weekend, in preparation for a spring cruise to see the cherry blossoms. The cruise happened but the blossoms have been delayed by unseasonably cold weather.  By splitting the Commander tent in half, I got enough plastic to do 2/3 of the skirt. Once all the pieces are in place, I’ll weld the plastic together with the shrink torch and tape up the seams. That should happen next weekend, unless the wind continues to blow like the dickens.

Meanwhile, on the inside of the boat…

The helm station door openings are now ready for fiberglass.

Since I last reported on the helm station door openings, we added strips of marine plywood to the steel uprights to make a pocket into which the doors will slide to keep out the weather.

Ready for FRP and fillets!

At the helm station, the dashboard fillets are also done and ready for sanding and primer.

Before: original dashboard pod seam–a great place for dirt to gather and hang out.

After: a nice and smooth fillet

FRP tape and epoxy holds the pod to the cabintop under the fillet.

That’s it for last weekend. Next weekend I’ll finish converting the tent to a paint shed, sand the fillets and prep the helm roof for primer.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets!

There are many interior angles on the exterior of this Roamer, and Chris Craft smoothed many–but not all–of them with fillets. Since hard, non-filleted angles are weaker, subject to collecting dirt, harder to wash and tend not to shed rain as well, we’re putting fillets pretty much everywhere there’s a visible, hard interior angle.

Welded deck seam fillets just like the original, but better with modern materials.

We used the same homemade fairing compound we’ve been using for the whole project: US Composites 635 epoxy with 3M microballoons and cabocil (in a 3:2 ratio), mixed to a peanut butter consistency.

Fillets–To Eternity and Beyond!!!

The fillet on the cabin top-to-deck seam covers a heavy layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass that we applied over that seam. This approach should be far superior to the painted 1″ quarter-round mahogany that Chris Craft originally used to seal that joint that I talked about in an article on fairing the cabin top.

Same approach around the front of the base of the cabin top.

No more leaks, and looks a whole lot cleaner than the original quarter-round mahogany.

Fillets for every size corner!

At the edges of the new bow seat, we’re using a smaller fillet than what we used down on the deck. But it’s larger than the original fillet that came out of the Chris Craft FRP mold. Hopefully, when combined with the geometry changes we made when we built the seat, it will shed water (and dirt) better than the original, tight radius corner.

Still smaller fillets around the galley window openings.

Out of the original Chris Craft mold, there were no fillets to speak of here. Everything was pretty much hard corners, which collected dirt and propagated cracks.

The deck fillet terminates to a point at midships.

The cabin top-to-deck seam joint is filleted all the way back to the helm station door openings.

The fairing compound on the deck here covers the welded seam where once there used to be the transition from aluminum decks to teak.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transforming Tent Model IX Into a Paint Shed.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Door Openings

Since 2007, when I cut off the old aft deck enclosure with a chainsaw, I’ve been developing a vision for how the helm station side door openings would work. Finally, over one week in 2013, the vision coalesced into pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I love it when a plan comes together! 😉

The helm station entry circa 2007 when we first got the boat.

The helm entry on both sides had been radically altered back in the 1970s. It was cut off vertically where the big C-channel beam comes down from the roof after that looooong 45* run.

Circa 2008: Reconfigured steel C-channel beam supporting the helm roof.

After cutting 3′ off of the sides of the fiberglass cabin-top as part of the deck and aft enclosure project, I cut and rewelded the steel C-channel beam so it’s vertical over nearly all of its length. This makes a stronger structure than original and also provides the forward edge of what will become the door opening.

Circa 2008: the stbd helm door opening

Fast forward to March 1, 2013.

Not much had changed here in the intervening years, but by 2013 I had a definite plan for how it would look in the end. The large, curvy block of wood is 8/4 mahogany stock that Chris Craft used to provide vertical structure to the sides of the cabin top. I’ll end up using it for molding somewhere. 😉

Weld area, FRP cut and rotten mahogany

When we replaced the teak side decks with new aluminum plate, we had to cut some of the fiberglass from the sides of the cabin top so we could fit the new plate and access the weld area. When we removed the old teak deck and rotten plywood underlayment, we found just a hint of rot in the bottom edge of the 3/4″ x 4″ mahogany board that the bottom edge of the cabin top screws to where it meets the deck. This rot, which was much worse in the bulkhead below it, was the result of the seam failing where the aluminum side deck transitioned to teak–a poor design if ever there was one.

2 sheets of 3/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood make up the filler piece between the fiberglass exterior and the helm door opening.

The fiberglass piece we cut out to weld in the new aluminum deck in 2008 is back where it should be…in 2013.

Ideally, we would have fiberglassed the plywood at the same time as the FRP panel, but the carpenter needs to finish making the “3rd side” of the box surrounding the steel upright. Once that’s in, we’ll FRP the whole thing and put in the final fillets.

Marine plywood frames out the helm station door opening in late March 2013.

Rather than using 8/4 solid stock like Chris Craft did to make up the filler piece between the side of the cabin top and the steel upright, instead we sandwiched two layers of 3/4″ doug fir marine ply bonded with US Composites 635 epoxy and wood flour/cabosil. The filler piece is screwed and glued in using the same wood flour epoxy mixture.

For the boxes around the steel uprights, we’re using 19mm okoume marine plywood that’s also screwed and glued in place. We have one more piece of okoume to cut for each side, then we’ll fiberglass and fair the entire thing in preparation for paint. On the inside, we’ll use solid mahogany stock rather than plywood and finish it off bright.

The window track drain is cut out and all edges are radiused for FRP coating.

The inside surface of the sides of the FRP cabin top is ground and ready for 1708 FRP.

The epoxy gluing the plywood to the sides of the cabin top is strong, but the joint will last forever if we put a layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth over the joint.

The top o’ the box is bonded to the helm roof.

We will fiberglass this joint, too, but first we need to put a 3rd side on the box–a piece of 3/4″ okoume plywood on the steel beam that the door will slide up against when its closed. The 4th side of the box–on the inside–will be a solid piece of African mahogany. The outside face of the box and the solid mahogany facia board inside will be wide enough to provide a pocket into which the door will fit when closed.

Window track drain made of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth wetted out with US Composites 635 epoxy.

All that remains to do is fiberglass and fair the plywood at the helm door.

With wet epoxy all over the boat, it was time to go home. I’m beat.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)

It’s been a very busy two weeks. The weather gods suck…windiest winter ever, and what’s the deal with two snow storms in March, including one just before the Cherry Blossom Festival???

Oh, also, if anybody thinks up how to produce 20cfm of air at 90psi with only 120VAC on a 20 amp breaker in the boatyard that services 16 power pedestals, drop me a line. 😉

The fairing work continues on the cabin top, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at the end-of-the-day pix. We’re also taking a different approach to the cabin top-to-deck joint than Chris Craft did.

Back at the Chris Craft factory in 1969, 1″ x 4″ mahogany boards were bolted to the deck structure all the way around the opening that will become the salon and galley. The FRP cabin top was then craned onto the deck, with the bottom edge fitting tightly to the mahogany on the inside.  Screws spaced 8″ apart secure the bottom edge of the cabin top to the mahogany. Large radius quarter-round mahogany was then screwed in place over the seam, with bedding compound to keep things dry.

It was a good approach except for a couple of problems that arise over decades of use: The coating on the wood fails eventually, so there’s a maintenance premium without as associated payoff. The bedding compound eventually gives up, usually in just a spot or two. This allows small amounts of water to leak in and go unnoticed, rotting out whatever mahogany it comes into contact with without a telltale drip to alert the owner.

So our approach has been to cover cabin top-to-deck joint seam with 1708 biaxial fiberglass, which we’ll cover with very nice, water-shedding fillets.

Circa 2008: quarter-round mahogany covering the cabin top-to-deck-joint seam.

This shot is from when we first got the boat, and shows the port side deck looking aft at the transition from aluminum decks to teak. The quarter round is broken from where the teak deck buckled, but you get an idea of how it worked. Also, note the paint has mostly fallen off the wood. It doesn’t matter how you do it, paint will not stick to exterior wood and stay there like it will to fiberglass or metal.

I think there’s a better, more modern way.

Circa 2013: heavy 1708 bi-axial FRP covering the cabin-top-to-deck joint seam where once there was wood.

As when we fiberglassed the cabin top, bowseat and dashboard, we use US Composites 635 epoxy for the FRP layup (with just a touch of cabosil to improve adhesion between the ‘glass and aluminum) and then hot coat it while it’s still tacky with fairing compound made of 635 epoxy, 3M microbubbles, and cabosil.

Though the deck was sandblasted in 2008, we ground it back a bit and also stripped the gelcoat from the cabin top before applying the FRP.

Same thing on the bow, where there was evidence of two old leaks at each corner that no doubt contributed to some of the rotten bulkheads we found when we first started the project.

Oh, my achin’ shoulders! Fairing work also continues.

It’s amazing how much fairing compound you put on compared to what remains in the end. The windshield base that had been previously repaired is now much stronger and straighter than it was before.

Fair lines from the bow seat to the helm.

We’re blocking the filler to sharp lines at the edges, which made low spots and wiggles very apparent. Before priming, we’ll sand the sharp edges down to a nice radius.

That’s a whole weekend worth of sanding and fiberglassing, but she just doesn’t look much different than when we started. We really are heading into the painting home-stretch, though.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Side Door Openings.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top

A potential buyer popped up for the Ford Lehman engines I had rebuilt for the Roamer back in 2008 before getting my wits about me and deciding on Cummins 450 Diamonds. So I spent two days over the weekend moving big pieces of iron around the State of Maryland, getting them back to the shop that did the rebuild for a quick check up in preparation for some videos.  On Sunday, the Boatamalans came by with their 30″ longboards and attacked the fairing compound we laid on the cabin top last week. While the guys were sanding away, I was out working on transforming Tent Model IX from a hurricane-tested winter work tent to a paint shed.

The dashboard is cleaning up nicely.

I decided to make the instrument pod part of the dashboard structure since the instruments have excellent access from below and there’s no benefit I can see in having it screwed together from below with an exposed seam above. All the joint between the two does is grab dirt. Once the dashboard is faired, we’ll put a nice fillet over the joint between the two after tabbing them together with lightweight fiberglass.

The bullet-proof windshield base.

There’s just a very fine line of yellow at the top of the windshield base to indicate there’s Kevlar bi-axial cloth below.

The previous repair area at the base of the windshield has been properly re-repaired.

Very little fairing compound was needed here, which is good since additional thickness here would increase the challenge of reattaching and bedding the windshield frame.

Shaping the starboard windshield base.
Everything looks very good here.

Process basics: apply expensive fairing compound to the surface, then sand most of it off!

The 30″ longboards are very good at finding the high and low spots in the fairing compound. Most of the dark lines here are where there were overlaps in the 1708 bi-axial fiberglass layer, creating high spots. Others, though, are high spots from where the original hard top shape simply wasn’t fair.

It’s anybody’s guess whether it was that way when new or if the wrinkly bits were caused by the monster Super Seamaster engines wracking the superstructure by bashing along at much faster than original design speeds.

Some of the original frames create high spots in the salon top roof.

Once it’s faired to this point, the fairing compound filling the low spots isn’t especially thick.

Salon roof frames create high spots all the way across the cabin top even far forward of the salon hatch roof repair.

The guys are doing a good job making the cabin top lines straight.

They faired the turn of the cabin top to the cabin top sides to a very sharp edge. We applied the second coat of fairing compound to the low spots and will do the final fairing next weekend. Once that’s straight and all of the low spots are gone, we’ll come back through and put a nice radius on it.

Nice radius on the brow.

This is a subtle styling spot on the bigger Chris Craft cruisers, but it’s notorious for developing cracks and pocks in the gelcoat. The guys did a great job reproducing and blending in the radius at the brow on the leading edge of the cabin top, now vastly improved with a continuous layer of 1708 bi-axial FRP.

Ditto on the port side.

The lines are really looking good here.Just a few touch ups were needed with fairing compound.

Meanwhile, I was busy transforming Tent Model IX on the outside.

I need to widen the aft section so we can prime and paint the aft enclosure, put a “cap” on top so we can paint the helm station roof, and drop the sides to the ground all the way around to keep paint fumes under control.

Basically, I’m turning it into a big paint spray booth.

The tent transformation is nearly done on the starboard side.

1.5″ PVC hoops will go over the helm station roof from the long uprights aft to create a new tent roof frame 5′ higher than now. I’ll then cut the existing PVC film and raise the whole aft section over the top of the new hoops. Then, with lots of shrink wrap tape and the torch, I’ll weld new shrink wrap film to the old so it goes all the way to the ground and secure it along the sides of the tent structure all the way around.

I’ll be begging the goddess of the seas for dead calm on that day, let me tell you!

Next week, we’ll finish longboarding then put some nice fillets around the dash pod and at the cabin top to deck joint. Time permitting, we’ll also get the fairing work done on the fore and side decks. I’ll continue transforming the tent and hope to have that done by Sunday, when the forecast is for 5mph winds!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)